The Business of Aging’s new research, Hacking Longevity,will premier at AARP’s Living 100 event in Washington D.C. on April 12th. The event will feature an “experience” of key data points of attitudes and changes displayed along a timeline at the Newseum in Washington DC.

The research is sponsored by AARP, GreatCall, Wells Fargo Advisors and Proctor & Gamble on the new Collaborata research platform.

Lori Bitter will moderate a panel on “The intergenerational imperative” at the ICAA Conference 2017. Bitter and colleagues will dive deeper into the companies, organizations and new initiatives working toward an intergenerational future. This session will explore the latest research, look at the workplace and importance of purpose, and provide a case-study view of successful projects.

Intergenerational. It’s the hot new buzzword in aging though it’s been around for years. It’s also steaming hot at a time when ageism is rampant and headlines report workplace warfare between Boomers and Millennials. To be sure, the unrest is real. Boomers lost jobs during the Great Recession and have struggled to earn again at the same rate. Millennials stayed in their parents’ homes, not earning enough to launch into an independent adult life. Throw family caregiving for loved ones into the mix and a clear pattern of interdependency begins to be clear.

SEISMIC SHIFTS
How did we get here? The current picture starts with increases in longevity. Since 1900 we’ve added 30 additional years of life. The United States Census Bureau estimates that the number of Americans living into their 90s will quadruple between 2010 and 2050,4 while the United Nations projects a 351% increase in the global population of adults 85+ over that same period. Unfortunately, the expectations of roles and life stages are rooted in the 1960s. Contrary to common thought, those 30 additional years aren’t simply tacked onto the end of life. Rather, they are distributed throughout the adult life stages, creating seismic shifts that our culture has yet to catch up with.

“By ‘understanding the real root of what is happening across the generational spectrum,’ we can create approaches that recognize interdependencies plus value and benefit all generations”

Young adulthood, midlife and old age are all being transformed by the addition of these years. Yet the changes continue to be written off as generational stereotypes. Understanding the real root of what is happening across the generational spectrum allows us to recognize it and work with it for the benefit of all generations

We are culturally stuck in the life stage paradigm of the last century. We followed a fairly consistent and predictable life script: 1. Go to School
2. Find a Job 3. Get Married 4. Have Children 5. Work Hard 6. Retire.

A few lucky people had some years of leisure before they died. This model has gone the way of the rotary phone, but the universal mindset has not made the change. Or, as author and gerontologist Barbara Waxman says in The Middlescence Manifesto, “We have a cultural lag. People have a lot of needless dissonance between perception and the reality of how our lives are unfolding.”

Markers of change
Life is messier. The predictable script is gone. Yet there is a discomfort with the idea of not living up to the old ideal. Consider some of these markers of change:

Young adults
Taking longer to enter and finish education
Waiting longer to marry
Waiting longer to have children

Older adults
Working to age 70 and beyond
Remarrying
Continuing education

Adulthood at every stage has seen shifts. Rather than using ageist stereotypes to put one generation down to elevate another, or feeling uncomfortable for not fitting an old-school life map, we can embrace this opportunity to create an intergenerational approach that recognizes our inherent interdependencies and values every generation for their contributions.

CHANGING PARADIGMS
Let’s examine some areas in which the shifting maps of adulthood contribute to significant intergenerational issues.

Housing
Housing is one of the industries most impacted by these life stage changes. In the US, more than 50% of Boomers have less than USD$100k saved for retirement, though many view their homes as a significant retirement asset. Most will need to sell the large family home and convert that equity to retirement income. But the demand for these homes may be very small. (This will force many Boomers to look to financial tools such as reverse mortgages.)

Millennials are not purchasing their own homes at the same rates of previous generations. They report the size of their student loans as the major issue in not being able to save for a down payment or qualify for a mortgage. With student-loan debt topping USD$1.4 trillion (and growing), research by Citizens Bank found that 60% of college graduates ages 35 and younger expect to be paying these loans into their 40s. Concern also transcends generational divides. Research conducted by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York shows that 2.8 million borrowers are 60 years or older, parents and grandparents of Millennial students.

The rental market
The dream of home ownership isn’t just an issue for younger generations. In 2016, home ownership in the US reached an historic low. While Millennials are part of the issue, surging Boomer interest in renting can’t be discounted.

A 2015 study by the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University found that families and married couples ages 45–64 accounted for roughly twice the share of renter growth as households under age 35. In urban areas with highly competitive rental markets, it is younger renters who are losing to older renters with greater ability to pay, creating increased need for affordable rental housing.

To manage the cost of living in their homes or high rents, Boomers increasingly choose to live with a roommate. Just like Millennials, Boomers also live with roommates for social reasons. Companies, like Silvernest.com, are emerging to help older adults find roommates and provide a range of services to ensure the success of the match. Some of these matches end up being from multiple generations.

Multigenerational living
Alternatively, there is a growing trend of Boomers remaining in the larger family home and housing multiple generations under the same roof. In 2014, a record 60.6 million people, or 19% of the US population, lived with multiple generations under one roof, according to Pew Research Center. For the first time, young adults have replaced elders as the second adult generation in the household.

Three-generation households—grandparents, parents and grandchildren—include more than 27 million people, while about a million people live in households with more than three generations. Another 3.2 million Americans live in grandparent/grandchild homes. Developers have begun to recognize the needs of these households and have created models to accommodate multiple generations. Companies have evolved to create accessory dwellings—nicknamed “granny garages”—to place on properties with existing homes to house family members. And nonprofits, like Fairhill Partners in Cleveland, Ohio, have developed apartments for grandparents raising grandchildren.

The rise in multigenerational living is one reason why fewer Americans live alone now than they did in 1990.

Caregiving
Increased longevity means more generations are now involved in providing care to older loved ones. In the US, the average age of family caregivers is trending younger at 49 years old. Caregiving has also become much more of a family affair. Generation X and the Millennial Generation are stepping into caregiving roles—47% of caregivers are 18–49 years of age. Part of this shift is due to their availability to provide care due to unemployment or underemployment.

The National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP report that 20% of caregivers are over age 65. There are also 1.4 million (and this estimate is low) children ages 8–18 who take care of a parent, grandparent or other elder, according to the American Association of Caregiving Youth. These hidden caregivers miss school, have little normal social life, and no support network as they navigate caring for the adults in their lives.

A looming crisis?
Cultural shifts have also led to changes in family structures and stability. Divorced and remarried at “unprecedented levels” in their younger years, Boomers have largely been responsible for the doubling of divorce rates in the 50-and-older age group since 1990. Their families are also typically smaller (fewer than two children). So what will caregiver support look like in the future?

In 2010, the ratio of available caregivers to people requiring care was 7:1. This number will continue to fall, to 4:1, as America’s Boomers push over the 80-year-old threshold in 2030. Between 2030 and 2040, the 80+ population will increase 44% while the number of caregivers increases by only 10%. The ratio completely bottoms out to less than 3:1 in 2040, when the Boomers are in old, old age. (In fact, caregiver support ratios will tumble in many countries worldwide.) Additionally, the higher percentage of unmarried Boomers and Boomers without children will require new kinds of support systems not dependent on family caregivers.

Technology is emerging to address some aspects of care. There is still a growing gap, however, in the number of jobs that will be created as a result of aging, and the number of people available to fill those roles.

Aging workforce
Who will work in aging? At some point in the 1980s, vocational education began to disappear from high schools, and the expectation grew that the majority of graduates would go to college. The tide is turning. But it’s not turning fast enough to create the healthcare and technology workforce required for the aging Boomers.

Emerging models aim to address the need for this workforce, with a focus on bridging the generational divide. Connect The Ages is a social enterprise on a mission to connect 5 million students to careers in aging by 2025. The time is certainly right to bridge the potential of Millennials and Generation Z to the aging population.

“Most students aren’t aware jobs in aging even exist, let alone future-proof, interdisciplinary jobs with room for advancement,” says 28-year-old Connect The Ages Founder and AARP Innovation Fellow Amanda Cavaleri. “We want to help educators introduce careers in aging to students by first bridging generational divides. Through our grassroots campaigns, students experience the often unknown positive side of aging and have opportunities to explore this impactful, purposeful work.”

Connect The Ages has released interviews with dozens of Millennials in aging, including architects, entrepreneurs, healthcare workers, lawyers, policymakers and technologists. Complementing the interviews is a national grassroots outreach and intergenerational storytelling and mentorship campaign. Many of the Millennials who work in aging report finding the field entirely by chance. This is not a sustainable way to meet the industry’s needs. Connect the Ages wants to create an active strategy to engage more young people in the field.

THE IMPERATIVE
We are just scratching the surface of understanding the interconnectedness of the generations and the need to work together toward solving the issues ahead of us. The imperative for our organizations, and our industry, is to discover, support and create initiatives that work toward a better-connected intergenerational future that will advance the aging field with young people and benefit everyone. We’ve never needed each other more.

References

1. National Institute on Aging and World Health Organization. (2011). Global Health and Aging. Living Longer, pp. 6–8. NIH Publication no. 11-7737. Retrieved on June 25, 2017, from https://www.nia.nih.gov/research/publication/global-health-and-aging/living-longer.

9. Joint Center for Housing Studies, Harvard University. (2015). The State of the Nation’s Housing 2015. Retrieved on June 26, 2017, from http://www.jchs.harvard.edu/research/publications/state-nations-housing-2015.

10.Cohn, D., & Passel, J. S. (2016). FactTank News in the Numbers. A record 60.6 million Americans live in multigenerational households. Washington, DC: Pew Research Center. Retrieved on June 27, 2017, from http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/08/11/a-record-60-6-million-americans-live-in-multigenerational-households.

11. National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP Public Policy Institute. (2015). Caregiving in the US 2015. Retrieved on June 27, 2017, from http://www.aarp.org/content/dam/aarp/ppi/2015/caregiving-in-the-united-states-2015-report-revised.pdf.

12. American Association of Caregiving Youth. (2015). More Facts about Caregiving Youth. Accessed on June 28, 2017, from https://www.aacy.org/index.php/more-facts-about-caregiving-youth.

14. Redfoot, D., Feinberg, L., & Houser, A. (2013). The Aging of the Baby Boom and the Narrowing Care Gap: A Look at Future Declines in the Availability of Family Caregivers. INSIGHT on the Issues, 85. Washington, DC: AARP Public Policy Institute. Retrieved on June 27, 2017, from http://www.aarp.org/content/dam/aarp/research/public_policy_institute/ltc/2013/baby-boom-and-the-growing-care-gap-insight-AARP-ppi-ltc.pdf.

15. Centre for Policy on Ageing. (2014). CPA Rapid Review. The care and support of older people–an international perspective. Retrieved on June 28, 2017, from http://www.cpa.org.uk/information/reviews/CPA-Rapid-Review-The-care-and-support-of-older-people-an-international-perspective.pdf.

by Jeffrey P. Rosenfeld, Ph.D., Environmental Gerontologist, and Professor-Parsons School of Design, and Brookdale Center for Healthy Aging

Thinking Cross-Culturally About Aging-in-Place

A different language is a different vision of life.

Federico Fellini, film director & scriptwriter

We are eager to learn from other cultures, but usually not when it comes to making our homes safer or more age-appropriate. Our food preferences are another story. We don’t hesitate to stock our kitchens and cupboards with the ingredients we need for a healthy Chinese stir fry or Turkish couscous. If only we were as willing to think cross-culturally about aging in place.

We can learn a great deal about home safety from the housing, home-furnishings and design options offered across the world, especially in other nations with rapidly aging populations. Aging in place is a more creative process than it has ever been before.

The beauty of globalization is that it gives us a world of options for designing our homes. To paraphrase Burger King, we can truly “Have it our way,” as we prepare to age in our homes. I learned this lesson well when Wid Chapman and I were writing Home Design in an Aging World.

Backstory: Home Design in an Aging World

Architect Wid Chapman and I decided to write a book to make cross-cultural comparisons of environments where people age-in-place: everything from apartments, detached and semi-detached homes, to traditional farmhouses, communes, and high tech dwellings. In 2009, we surveyed homes and home furnishings available to older people in seven of the world’s most rapidly aging nations: Japan, Sweden, China, Brazil, Israel, the United States, and India. By the year 2009, all 7 of these nations were being reshaped by what the Japanese call The Silver Tsunami, and what we describe as The Age Wave. We decided to do a comparative study of design and architectural responses to global aging.

This led to the publication of Home Design in an Aging World (NY: Fairchild, 2010). The book remains one of a handful of cross-cultural comparisons of architecture and design for aging-in-place.

Chapman and I have asked how architecture and design respond to kinship norms. How is aging-in-place shaped by Hindu kinship, which is strongly patriarchal and multigenerational? Or by the sensibilities of Sweden, where fertility is quite low and people typically live in nuclear households?

As environmental gerontologists, we were curious about the impact of age-related norms on aging-in-place. For instance, would aging-in-place be discouraged in Brazil, one of the world’s most youth-oriented societies. And how about Japan? Unlike Brazil, Japan, is a gerontocracy where elders and old age are honored, and where pride of place in their children’s homes is enjoyed. What is the impact of the high U.S. divorce rate and small family size on our own architecture and design for aging-in-place?

Chapman and I focused on both Western cultures (USA, Israel, and Brazil); and also on cultures where non-Western architectural norms and traditions are still in play (Japan, China, and India). What follows are some examples of how constructed environments and local technologies interact with social norms to affect the experience of aging-in-place.

Vernacular Design

Learning from other cultures involves appreciating that there is often a mix of traditional home design – what architects call “vernacular design” – and cutting-edge technologies such as robotics. New technologies, combined with strategic changes in homedesign, are making it easier than ever before to age in place. People on the cusp of retirement can build upon new technologies to create everything from home offices to home care for a variety of chronic illnesses.

What follows is a very brief look at “lessons” drawn from other cultures, ranging from low-tech/high-touch to high-tech/low-touch, and from ancient to post-modern.

Japan: Living Close To The Floor

There is an old Japanese saying which goes, “May you live and die on tatami.” This refers to the bamboo mats which cover traditional Japanese homes from wall-to-wall. Home-furnishings in traditional Japanese homes are low-slung or actually on the floor. The futon is perhaps the most familiar example of this approach to home-furnishings. Low, traditional Japanese home furnishings are often moved from room to room as needed. This occurs on the tatami mats which cover the floor of a traditional Japanese home.

The floor-based Japanese design aesthetic features low-slung furniture and futons for sleeping that make any home safer. Apart from reducing falls, floor-based lifestyles enhance strength and balance. My sources tell me that even the most contemporary homes in Tokyo or Osaka contain a “Japanese Room” with traditional tatami mats on the floor, and Tokugawa detailing throughout.

Apart from being reverent about its past, Japan is also a world leader in technological innovation. Japanese homes often contain a mix of products and technologies that hark back centuries, as in the case of traditional tea-sets or futons, and also look ahead to a robotic future. For example, there is a growing number of Japanese households with robotic pets – mostly dogs.

Futurist Timothy Horynak (2006) claims that the interest in robotic house pets reflects Japan’s passion for incorporating the newest of technologies with time-honored canons of Japanese design and home life. Robotics is the product of digital design and innovation. Tatami dates back centuries. That they exist together in some Japanese homes is a reminder that Japanese proudly mix tradition and technology. This may be the new face of aging in place in Japan and elsewhere in the world.

Brazil: Universal Design Begins at the Front Door

Brazilian architect Sandra Perito, from Sao Paulo, has designed Senior Housing that is intended to prevent domestic accidents, especially falls (Rosenfeld and Chapman, 2012). Perito routinely adds a built-in table on the front porch or entry to a home. Perito makes sure that this Entrée Table is as close to the front door as possible. In apartment buildings for Brazilian Seniors, she does much the same.

The idea behind Perito’s Entrée Table it Seniors a place where they can place packages, bundles, or a purse while searching for their keys. The inspiration came from a elderly woman from Sao Paulo who lost her balance while rummaging through her purse in search of her keys. Perito adds this reminder: her table also functions as a grab-bar for additional balance while locking or unlocking the front door.

Scotland: Why Smaller is Better When it Comes to Refrigerators

On a trip to Scotland many years ago, I visited a number of homes in the Scottish Highlands where people either had very small refrigerators, or no refrigerator at all. Those without refrigerators kept perishable items in their cellars. The climate in the highlands is such that the home’s basement is always cool enough to put perishables for a day or two.

Philip B. Stafford, author of Elderburbia: Aging With A Sense of Place in America offers the following advice: It is best for older people to have small refrigerators. It has nothing to do with household size, he says. Very simply, people with small refrigerators must leave home more frequently to do their grocery shopping. The small refrigerator is an antidote to isolation.

France: Smart Home-Technology

Beginning in 2013, Paris-based Netatmo has been developing a line of user-friendly Smart Home devices. By “user-friendly,” Netatmo means that their technology provides feedback when and where their user is. For example Netatmo’s home security camera, “…detects and reports in real-time if someone lurks around your home, a car enters your driveway, or your pet is in the yard.”

User-friendly technology provides feedback at home, and also when the user is at work or on vacation. The user can be far from home and rely on Netatmo’s personal weather station to keep track of the weather at home. The personal air-quality sensor does the same for levels of air-pollution in and around the house. The product line also includes a Smart thermostat and a Smart security camera with facial recognition. As more people opt to age-in-place, Netatmo provides the technology for safety and security.

Singapore: Robotic Home-Exercise Coach

In 2015, Singapore company RoboCoach, Inc., introduced a robotic “exercise coach” at five of Singapore’s Senior Centers. The RoboCoach has a smiling face and appendages that mimic human movements. The robot has been developed to “teach” Seniorsa range of exercises while offering verbal encouragement and support.

According to The Guardian, the company predicts that RoboCoach will become a popular fixture in many of Singapore’s Senior Centers and Senior Living Facilities. The goal is to enable the elderly to lead more independent, fulfilling lives.

“…The android with metal arms and a screen for a face is already leading sessions and will roll out its services to five senior activity centers across the city-state this year.”

Going forward aging-in-place will mean combining renovation and innovation: changes to the constructed environment of home, and the installation of technologies which will make living at home safer and easier. That said, it is as important as ever to respect the role that culture plays in making a home safe to age in place. As technology becomes a more important part of this process we must:

Consider how culture shapes the relationship between “private space” and “public space” in and around the home

Respect cultural traditions that shape the spaces where people cook, eat, sleep, and toilet. Designers and gerontologists should be mindful of how age, sex, and marital status all shape the form and function of a home

Understand the symbolism and social meaning of color in the architecture and design for every culture.

Philip B. Stafford, Elderburbia: Aging With A Sense of Place in America, NY: Praeger, 2006.

About the Author: For the past 10 years, Dr. Rosenfeld has been researching the interplay of ethnicity, aging, and home design. He is currently looking at home design and community-building by Brooklyn’s “New” ethnic elders from Korean, India, Pakistan, and Guyana. Along with architect Wid Chapman, AIA, he has written Home Design in an Aging World (Bloomsbury, 2010), and UnAssisted Living (Monacelli Press, 2012).

Dr. Rosenfeld is also currently working with the research arm of New York Methodist Hospital in Park Slope, Brooklyn. He is looking at ethnic differences (incidence and prevalence) of serious geriatric falls in the home. The goal is to better understand how ethnically-themed design contributes to ethnic disparities in home injury. Dr. Rosenfeld has been on the adjunct faculty at Brookdale Center since May, 2015. He can be contacted through Parsons School of Design at Rosenfej@NewSchool.Edu; 347-249-4014.

Israel is no amateur when it comes to creating new and revolutionary products. This powerhouse, nicknamed The Start-Up Nation, is now at the forefront of “The Business of Aging.” VitalGo’s Total Lift Bed, developed by Israel’s Ohad Paz and Ofer Parezky, is one of the examples of this kind of revolutionary product. VitalGo’s remarkable bed has already made life safer and easier for older people in Israel and many countries around the world.

Upright Tilting Functionality

The Total Lift Bed (TLB) has a unique, “…upright tilting functionality” (UHS, 2015:1), which helps patients sit up, stand and start moving away from the safety of the patient’s bed. This makes it a very therapeutic bed, thus making the TLB more than just a comfortable place to sleep. Click here to see a demonstration of Total Lift Bed.

One hospital in the US tested how the TLB worked for their patients. They found that patients who were tilted up several times per day improved more in a shorter period of time, and more of them were able to go home than patients who were confined to bed and had traditional therapy (UHS, 2015:1). TLB’s unique functionality minimizes the risk of falling out of bed, and helps contribute to shorter hospital stays.

The Total Lift Bed is FDA registered and is used in Israel, USA, Germany, Austria, U.K, Switzerland, Italy, France, Australia and Norway. Some hospitals in the US include: The Cleveland Clinic, John Hopkins, Stanford University Hospital, Carolinas Specialty Hospital, Florida Memorial and various Veteran Affairs (VA) hospitals.

Seniors, whether in hospital or in their own homes, and regardless of whether they are in good health or not, have a higher risk of falling and becoming less mobile. Immobility then increases the risk of many health conditions and furthers the risk of falling and decline in quality of life. The use of the bed decreases this risk.

Many of the patients who have used the TLB have reported that, “This bed undoubtedly saved my life!” The hospital where the study was done found that the TLB “…improved patient-outcomes, the cost-effectiveness of providing care, and the satisfaction of patients and their families.” (UHS, 2015:1).

Israel and The Business of Aging

Israel’s demographics make it an ideal marketplace for TLB. In July of 2016, The Jerusalem Post estimated that 10.6 percent of Israel’s population, or 866,000 people, are now over 65.

According to a recent UN publication: “For most nations, regardless of their geographic location or developmental stage, the 80 or over age group is growing faster than any other segment of the population.” Global aging has thus created an international marketplace for the TLB in the world’s hospitals, rehab centers, and personal residences for people who wish to “age in place” in their own homes. VitalGo’s marketing efforts are responsive to the fact that there is already a worldwide need for the TLB, both in hospitals and at home.

Aging-in-Place, With Dignity

Many seniors prefer to age-in-place (at home) whenever possible. Safety concerns, aging minds and decreased strength and mobility, along with increased risk of falling (especially getting up out of bed where many falls occur) can make aging in place challenging or unsafe. The chances of falling out of a bed, a chair, or down a flight of stairs increases with age, even for the healthiest of seniors.

One of the key goals in the development of the Total Lift Bed has been to help Seniors age in place with safety and dignity.

At home, or in the hospital, the TLB does most of the lifting that caregivers (whether they be trained professionals or loved ones) would ordinarily give. The TLB does not replace the human touch, but rather, enhances the ability of the caregiver to provide the healing touches needed, without the heavy lifting that leads to caregiver burnout and risk of injury. Additionally, being able to be raised smoothly and effortlessly enhances the quality of the mobility experience, without having to worry about hurting their nurse or loved one who is helping them to get up and move.

With the push of a button, whether at home or in the hospital, TLB contributes to mobility and self-confidence. Hence, individuals, patients and caregivers (whether professionals or loved ones) are beneficiaries of the Total Lift Bed.

References

“Israel’s Elderly Population To Double By 2035,Statistics Bureau Says” The Jerusalem Post, July 28, 2016

Biosketch: Paula Adelman has an eclectic background and divided her time working in sports, raising 2 wonderful sons and helping the aging population. She has a business degree, with an emphasis on entrepreneurship. She divides her time between the US and Israel. Paula is the founder of BoomerSurf.com, an American/Israeli based tech start-up. Through BoomerSurf, she is helping Boomers and Seniors manage computer, tablet and smartphone tasks online and through It improve their connection to family, friends and community. For more information visit: BoomerSurf.com.

This week’s installment features the work of Steve Minkin, and is edited by Jeffrey Rosenfeld, Ph.D. of Parsons School of Design.

When the embargo is finally lifted, Cuba could become an emerging market for American companies concerned with the “business of aging”. The statistics are strikingly clear. Cuba has one of the oldest populations in the Americas, and demographic trends virtually ensure that by 2030 the country will be the oldest in the hemisphere.

Cuba today has about 11.1 million inhabitants. The percentage of Cubans living into old age is moving higher everyday. In 2015, one out of every five Cubans was reported to be above 60 years old. By 2025 the ratio is expected rise to 1:4. In less than 10 years 25% of Cubans will be over 60.

In 2030, less than 15 years from now, 30% of Cubans will have entered their 60+ senior years. Revolutionary Successes: It is common demographic wisdom that healthy, educated societies have low birth rates. Pre-revolutionary Cuba was characterized by a stark contrast between the lives of the rich and poor with very little in between. The country was controlled by a dictatorial, mafia-connected, brutal and corrupt regime. The majority of the country was uneducated. Infant, child and maternal mortality was rampant.

From its inception the Castro government emphasized education and a system of free national health care. As a result, Cuba, although poor, boasts the highest literacy rates in the Americas and the lowest rates of infant, children and maternal mortality. By these demographic measures, Cuba fares better than the United States and is demographically comparable with Canada.

Cuba only spends a fraction of what we do on health care, but average Cuban life expectancy is equal to that in the United States.

One reason for Cuba’s longevity rate, is that this island nation is a very safe place to live. There is virtually no gun violence, and drugs are not a major social and public problem. Education and health have had powerful impacts on the age structure of Cuba. Most Cuban women delay childbirth in order to continue their educations and careers. The Cuban demographic profile is nearly reverse of that of most other Caribbean and Latin American countries, where the age structure looks like a pyramid. A pyramidic population is a “Young Population,” which means there is a high fertility rate, and lots of kids. The pyramid-shape results from the fact that the mortality rate is very high. Most of the children in a “Young Population” will die-off before they reach adolescence. As a result, the population narrows as the cohort gets older.

The Cuban age-structure is now comparable to that of other demographically aged nations, and not the younger Latin-American ones: The Cuban population-base is narrow. It “fattens” with the succession of years, because most people live longer than ever before. Cuba’s population is aging, and along with that, a larger percentage of Cubans are approaching “advanced old age” (80+) than ever before.

The Cuban government makes it easy to postpone having children. Family Planning is nearly free and medically safe abortions are easy to obtain. When children are born, the mother, or if the family chooses the father, is allowed one year paid leave. After that free childcare and nursery school is followed by tuition-free quality education, encompassing elementary and high school, university and professional schools. Physicians, engineers, scientists, as well as, teachers, artists, musicians, dancers and all other fields graduate debt-free. However, newly minted graduates enter a low wage job market that is still largely controlled by the state. As a result, many educated Cubans seek opportunities abroad as economic migrants in search of higher incomes. This partial brain drain contributes to the aging of the populations and creating a rift in the more comfortable patterns of elder care many Cubans have grown used to enjoying. In socialist Cuba, most families live in intergenerational homes or apartments that are owned free and clear of debt.

As a result, the Cuban family remains the most common source of support for the elderly. Cuban Seniors are culturally respected, and as required, they are cared for at home.

The government and/or the Catholic Church and other charities operate Casas Abuelos or so-called grandparents homes. These provide daytime recreational and cultural opportunities as well as meals, health and social services. The responsibility to ensure that elderly are not locked-in, ignored and depressed remains a community and governmental priority. Doctors and nurses and social workers regularly perform home visits. In the future the aging population will likely face new social dynamics as the economy opens up to private enterprise, which currently accounts for about 25% of GDP. Opportunities for buying and selling properties are increasing and increasing numbers of mobile young Cubans are choosing to live separately or migrate in search of work abroad.

As more elderly people live alone, tools for remote care will become increasingly necessary, especially in families where the younger generation has moved overseas. Emergency alert systems will find a place and could readily be incorporated into the existing neighborhood heath care structure based on 24 hours on-call medical services. Such devices could become widely available following investments in building the necessary technical and marketing infrastructures. The outdated US embargo, however, places US companies at a serious disadvantage. The Chinese, Canadians or Europeans are likely to dominate the field unless the Congress votes to end the embargo – the “white elephant” standing in the way of US-Cuban business opportunities.

It isn’t a technology solution. It is decidedly low-tech. It’s not a medical device, but it does ease suffering. And while we sometimes joke about hoarding, older adults are buried in stuff — the accumulation of a lifetime (or two). The resistance to letting go of it is an enormous issue for caregivers, senior living providers and aging in place experts. Of all of the issues of caregiving, this one is the gift that literally keeps on giving.

I profess my expertise.

I come from a long line of near-hoarders. My grandmother, who passed away at 98 on our family farm, was a collector — antique furniture, dishes, books, family photographs, recipes … she had my grandfather’s college report cards squirreled away! And I had the task of helping to empty her home and prepare for her estate sale. (Read that as two truckloads of stuff making its way from Missouri to my very small Bay-area home — including her restored Victorian baby carriage — because who doesn’t need one of those?)

My mother, whose basement was nearly at intervention stage, had a fire and her house burned down. She lost everything, but continues to joke that she saved us from the work of going through that stuff. The positive outcome was that she and my stepfather moved to a very livable, beautiful home in an age-targeted community with plenty of features for aging in their home.

Caregivers & Professionals

In our research with family caregivers, it isn’t medication management or fall prevention that keeps them up at night, though they care deeply about those things. It is their worry over what to do with all of their parents’ stuff. The conversations with their parents can be as precarious as the “time to give up the car keys” talk. At a time in their life when seniors are losing friends, giving up hobbies and freedoms, their treasures are very important. The irony is that seniors believe staying in their homes as long as possible is easing a burden on their children. The reality is that it shifts the burden from the finances of long-term care to extended time and expense of wrapping up their affairs after death.

Senior housing professionals know that stuff keeps older adults from moving to homes that are better designed for their needs — both physical and social. Aging-in-place professionals and occupational therapists know the dangers all of the stuff creates in the home. Caregivers tell us that the aftermath of losing a loved one is so complicated by the dispensation of stuff that their mourning and grief is put on hold sometimes for several years.

The data is the stuff that companies are built on

Two-thirds of 18-34 year olds value experiences over possessions. They don’t value or want the stuff. And if HGTV is any indication, they are buying tiny houses with the storage capacity of a file drawer. That’s if they can afford to buy a home at all. Perhaps it’s growing up with the stuff that has created this desire for a simpler existence.

I work with smart entrepreneurs who have brilliant ideas for apps and devices that serve older consumers, some more scalable than others. You want scale, consider this:

There are 50,000 storage facilities in the U.S. — five times the number of Starbucks. That’s 2.3 billion square feet.

50% of storage renters are simply storing what won’t fit in their homes even though the average home size has doubled in that last 50 years.

Currently there are 7.3 square feet of self-storage for every man, woman and child in the nation. One in 10 Americans rents offsite storage. It’s the fastest-growing segment of the commercial real estate industry over the past four decades (New York Times Magazine)

25% of people with two-car garages don’t have room to park cars inside them; 32% have room for only one car (U.S. Department of Energy)

The home organization industry, valued at $8 billion, has more than doubled since 2000 at a rate of 10% each year (Uppercase)

Services like moving, packing, estate sales and auction sites are fragmented and require time, trust, and oversight. Rarely are there services of social workers, gerontologists or care managers to start the conversations, provide resources or support family caregivers. But everyday there are millions of families are trying to figure this out. This is a service worth figuring out. (After I figure out which key goes to which storage unit.)

As someone who’s always bristled at generational stereotypes, I’m cheering those who are finally agreeing we need to stop playing the millennials vs. boomers card in the media (as no one talks about generation x anymore, that needn’t be halted of course). But as I was working on the upcoming feature for our May/June issue about how brokers are attracting the next generation of real estate pros, I found myself unable to avoid the term “millennial.”

That’s when I realized it has nothing to do with the terms; it’s the inaccurate stereotypes everyone should be finished with. And that’s why I really liked Lori K. Bitter’s The Grandparent Economy: How Baby Boomers Are Bridging the Generation Gap (Paramount Market Publishing, Inc., 2015). Not only is she seeking to help business owners and marketers better understand the boomer generation through the lens of grandparenthood using actual data, but she also busts a fair amount myths about boomers and grandparents in the process. Among them:

Age and aversion to technology: Bitter says if you do an image search on grandparents in Google you’ll likely see “cartoon caricatures of couples with gray buns, sagging bellies and boobs, and canes… In reality, only 20 percent of grandparents are 75 or older.” She also points out that grandparents not only outspend other generations in traditional shopping environments, but they also “are outspending younger consumers two to one online… and they account for one in four mobile transactions.”

Multi-gen housing as a temporary reaction to recession. Bitter, who was raised by her grandparents, points out that humans have been living with several generations under one roof since the beginning of civilization, and in many cultures around the world, it’s more common than it currently is in the United States. But as we become increasingly multicultural, it’s important to examine our biases and look at the facts: 2.7 million grandparents are raising small children on their own, and that doesn’t encompass the many who are sharing the task of raising children with the kids’ biological parents. She also points out that, far from being temporary, the trend will probably grow as people are living longer, and notes that grandfamilies occur in every area of the country and represent all income levels, races, and ethnicities.

Midlife crises. Rather than fearing their advancing age, boomers are becoming less concerned with numbers as they mature. Bitter says this is the beginning of wisdom, or “the centered sense of the timelessness of all things.” She suggests thinking of marketing in the same way you might universal design: If you create something that can be used by anyone, it will be appreciated by everyone.

The “Me Generation.” Bitter shows how the common trope of younger generations being full of themselves goes astray: All young people project that sort of bravado to a certain extent. “The images of self-entitled, self-centered, and materialistic boomers do not sit well, and the majority of those surveyed believe advertisers and reporters frequently get it wrong. From a developmental perspective self-involvement and materialism are features of a striving lifestyle typical of younger adults, which would be accurate for any generation, not just the Baby Boom.”

Though this isn’t a book specifically about real estate, Bitter includes numerous examples of housing communities that are successfully meeting the needs of this new batch of grandparents. And she clearly thinks highly of REALTOR® outreach to consumers: “Has an ad ever brought a tear to your eye? …Fast forward to the recent ads by the National Association of REALTORS® about the ‘American Dream of home ownership’ featuring a grandfather and his grandson. Mature consumers appreciate the art of a story well told.”

A lot has been written about Baby Boomers, who are doing a lot more to boost the economy than they are given credit for — a lot more — says author Lori Bitter.

Bitter, author of “The Grandparent Economy: How Baby Boomers are Bridging the Generation Gap,” says Boomers are not only taking in their parents, but sometimes several generations of family members who have not recovered from the Great Recession.

The problem, she says, is that they are doing it all at great peril to their own retirement.

“The real story is they may have two or three generations of people living in their homes that they were working their butts off to support,” she says. “This generation just gets bashed. When you see what is really happening. It is more interesting that the headlines and misunderstood labels.

“They are literally holding up the economy by taking care of families who haven’t made it through the recession too well, taking care of their elders and grandchildren,” she says. “Even if they aren’t totally supporting them, they are contributing to all those households.”

Not only are they endangering their own retirement by supporting family members, but they are also doing it at the expense of their own health, she says.

“Fifty is typically is where you have your personal health concerns,” she says. You look at your health in a different way. Middle-age people are managing a number of chronic conditions of their own. While caring for people at the older end of the spectrum or younger end, they’re managing doctor appointments of others, and push their own health care needs to the bottom of the list. They can see the decline of person they are they are taking care and simultaneously ignore their own health. We urge this population to take care of their own health. If their health problems get worse, the whole system breaks down.”

Plan to attend the longest running Venture event focused on the baby boomer consumer and the longevity marketplace. This year’s theme is Strategic Investment in the Longevity Market. It will be hosted on Wednesday, June 22nd, 2016, 9:00am – 6:00pm, at Santa Clara University, in the Music and Dance Building, Recital Hall.

Ken Dychtwald, visionary thought leader and author, will keynote this year’s Summit. This year’s agenda features invitation-only Bootcamps the day before the event, plus a Breakfast with Angel Investors with a research briefing early in the day. Favorite sessions, Pitch for Distribution, and Investment Priorities are featured, in addition to a new session titled “Elements of Success” featuring: Ted Fischer, Vice President, Business Development, Hasbro; David Inns, CEO, GreatCall, Inc.; Andrew Gordon, Directing Animator, Pixar Animation Studios.